Bridge over Troubled Waters
by BespectacledSloth
Summary: Tadashi and Hiro start the school on a rough patch as they discuss swimming, ditching, and their worries. Quick one-shot for an anon on tumblr!


It was sunny, but chilly out as Tadashi and Hiro set out for their walk home from school. Tadashi had just started his Sophomore year in high school, while Hiro had just made the jump from the fifth grade to middle school. In four short years, Hiro, at the age of only eight years old, had climbed through elementary school without breaking a sweat and had successfully qualified to start middle school at the start of the new school year. He had his backpack, with barely a notebook and some pens tucked inside, slung over his shoulders. He was fairly certain he'd get through the day as easily as he'd gotten through elementary school, and had no qualms about being under-prepared for his first day as a middle school student.

"Tadashi, check this out!" He said excitedly as they came to a small bridge that crossed a river several feet below them. He hopped up on the side rail and balanced a little less than gracefully on top of it as he marched across. He beamed a gap-toothed grin in Tadashi's direction, feeling joy at being taller and better at something than he was.

"You're gonna fall," Tadashi said, eyeing him, "And when you do I'm not jumping into the river to save you. It's too cold out to go for a swim." At nearly fifty feet wide and twenty feet deep, the river was rather large and was entirely man-made for the purpose of redirecting water between two natural rivers in the event of overflow. There had been quite a bit of rain lately, so the river was high and running at a quick speed.

"I won't fall," Hiro protested, sticking his arms out like wings to balance as he walked along the rail. He stopped in the middle, peering over the edge, "Besides, it's only a few feet down. I wouldn't get hurt."

"It's a few feet to the surface, and then it's about five of you standing on your head deep. Not to mention, it's stronger and faster than you can manage. You'd be swept away like dirt under a rug."

Hiro scoffed, "I can swim."

"Can you? Oh, that's news to me."

"Well, I don't know how to swim, but I know _how _to swim," he stressed the words, making a face like he had everything figured out.

"Glad we cleared that up," Tadashi said with a playful roll of his eyes. "Now get down before you hurt yourself."

Hiro sighed and hopped off the rail, falling in step beside him, "Way to spoil a good time."

As they neared the Lucky Cat Cafe, they could smell the aroma of fresh warm cinnamon buns, a treat Aunt Cass typically saved for first days of school, heartbreak, and when an experiment didn't go as planned (also known as heartbreak.) They both broke into a sprint to see who could make it to the cafe first, and, as always, Hiro was the first through the door with Tadashi intentionally lagging behind him.

"Welcome home!" Aunt Cass cheered as they came through the door, the tray of cinnamon buns in her hands. She held them out of reach of Hiro as he came over and looked at Tadashi, "Well, how was school? How did it go? Make any new friends, Tadashi? Hiro?" She looked at the pair of them and beamed, so proud of her boys.

Tadashi smiled and sat down, shrugging, "There are a few people in a couple different classes that I think I'd like to get to know. They all went there last year, but I only ever saw them around campus. I know one guy is named Fred, he introduced himself to me, and one of the girls from my Chemistry class, Fred called her Honey Lemon when we sat together at lunch, I don't know think it's her real name, seems really nice."

"Oh, a girl, huh?" Aunt Cass smiled, "And how about you, Hiro?" She turned her attention to him when Tadashi rolled his eyes.

"Had a great time. Lots of friends, sure. Lost my lunch money and now I'm starving so would you _please_ put the tray down? _You are torturing me!"_

She sat the tray down and they gobbled up the cinnamon buns, telling her about their classes, some of their teachers especially, in fact Hiro complained at length about how his math teacher kept talking down to him like he was a little kid, when in fact he already knew everything he was being taught and really saw no point of taking the class except to prove that he was already smarter than everyone in it.

They had a nice dinner a few hours later, then retreated upstairs to shower and get ready for bed.

"Tadashi," Hiro said when the lights were out and wall was quiet. "You awake?"

"Yeah," Tadashi said softly.

Hiro waited a minute, listening to the cars pass by outside, "You'd jump into the river and, you know, save me, if I did fall in, right?" He didn't hear anything for several minutes, then he heard the bed across the room squeak and the blankets rustle before footsteps came towards him across the cold wood floor.

The bed dipped a little, then Tadashi lay down beside him in the bed, propping his head up on one elbow, "Of course I would," he said softly, hugging Hiro close to his chest, "I was just joking about letting you drown. I could never do that. You're my little brother. I will _always _save you from the water. I promise."

Hiro snuggled into Tadashi's chest and put his arms as far around him as he could, hugging him tightly, "Love you, Tadashi," he whispered sleepily.

Tadashi put his arms around Hiro, "Love you too," he pulled the covers over the pair of them, snuggling into the warmth, and fell asleep with his little brother hugging him so tightly that it actually hurt a little, but that was okay.

The next morning, they got up and dressed for school in the usual way, then rushed downstairs for a quick bite to eat and were out the door within minutes of waking up. Hiro hadn't bothered to brush his hair, so the entire walk Tadashi was desperately trying to at least get some of it to stay flat so he didn't _look_ like he'd only just crawled out of bed. Just because it was the truth didn't mean it needed to be presented as such.

When they got to the bridge, Tadashi noticed that up ahead he saw Fred and the girl known as Honey Lemon walking to school. He called for them, then jogged a little to catch up, leaving Hiro behind on the far side of the bridge. He stood with them for a few moments, talking, and when they noticed the time they all started to walk together.

Hiro walked to the middle of the bridge and stood, watching them, as they went off into the distance without him. He knew friends were kind of a big deal to Tadashi—he had tons of them from every grade and every place in town—but Hiro had hoped he'd at least invite him to walk with them so he wouldn't have to walk to school alone. It was only his second day in a new place after all.

Instead, he watched them for a little while, and when they'd gotten mostly out of view, he decided school wasn't for him that day. He walked down the bridge the rest of the way and around it to go sit down by the water and watch the fish swim by.

Hours passed. Schools got out, and he was still there, doodling in his notebook or throwing stones in the river, listening to people as they walked past happily chatting away about this or that or the other. He sighed, bored, half wishing he'd gone to school just so he could have had something to do.

"Hiro!" He heard Tadashi calling out from far away, "Hiro!"

He lifted his head and looked around. Tadashi was zipping down the sidewalk and across the bridge, looking all around, his phone in hand, and had a panicked look on his face. Hiro pulled his hood down and stood up, walking up the slope of the hill and to the edge of the bridge. Tadashi had stopped in the middle and was looking down at the water, his face pale.

"Tadashi?"

Tadashi's head snapped up so fast Hiro was concerned that—if it had been at all possible—it might snap off. "Hiro." It sounded like relief, but it quickly began to look like anger. "Hiro." Now it sounded like anger. "Where have you been? I got a call from Aunt Cass that _she_ got a call that _you _hadn't shown up for school today! I was worried sick about you! I left early, I've been all over town looking for you, Aunt Cass closed the cafe!"

Hiro shied away from him, "I didn't feel like going," he shrugged.

"Didn't... You didn't feel like going!?" He threw his hands to the sky, "We got aaaaaaalmost to school and you just suddenly decide you don't feel well enough to go in?"

"It's not that..." Hiro toed the ground with his shoe, scuffing it, "I just didn't want to go," He walked along the bridge, Tadashi raging behind him, and hopped up on the railing, holding onto one of the bishop-shaped spires that held the bridge together and above the water.

"I can't believe you would just decide to wander off to god knows where instead of going to school! What if something had happened to you? What if you had been kidnapped or mugged, or taken and sold into the drug trade?"

"I think that falls under kidnapping," he said nonchalantly, balancing on the rails and walking forward. He wobbled a bit, half focused on what Tadashi was saying to him and occasionally glancing away from his foot placement on the rail.

Tadashi growled, turning away and taking his baseball cap off. He very nearly threw it on the ground in frustration, "I just can't believe you! How could you be so selfish? So uncaring? Aunt Cass and I were going crazy looking for you!"

_Splash._

"I mean, I could understand if you went home, but instead you just wandered off!" He paused, steaming, "Oh sure, now you choose to shut up!" He wheeled around, prepared to continue reprimanding his brother, but instead he found empty air space where his brother had been perched on the railing. He ran to the edge of the bridge and looked over, "Hiro!" He shouted.

There was no movement on the surface except for remnants of Hiro breaking through it. Then, suddenly, a hand shot from under the water and Hiro flailed as he struggled to the surface, he coughed and tried to paddle against the current before he slipped under again.

Tadashi threw his bag down on the bridge and his hat on top of it and climbed up on the edge of the bridge. He threw himself off the edge and into the water, feeling the cold sting immediately as it hit him. He had to force himself to move against the cold, finding it a struggle to will his muscles to move.

He swam as hard as he could with the current, seeing Hiro just out of his grasp ahead of him. He dove under, catching the significantly faster undercurrent, and caught up with his little brother. He wasn't moving anymore and his face was pale, lips turning purple from the cold. Tadashi kept him above the water as much as he could as he desperately paddled with one arm to the edge of the river. People had gathered on shore and were shouting for him. When he made it over, he passed Hiro up to someone, then felt hands on his arms help pull him out of the water. He was shivering, but he ignored it as whoever had Hiro lay him out on the ground.

Tadashi scrambled over, touching his cheek, "Hiro, wake up," he said softly, tapping his cheek, "Come on, Hiro," he whispered, leaning over him, hair dripping, and starting CPR. He counted under his breath, "One, two, three..." he didn't realize he was crying until his hands were shaking so hard that he could barely perform compressions. He kept going, and after a few minutes felt Hiro's chest heave under his hands. "Come on, Hiro," he said, his voice thick.

Hiro began coughing and rolled away from his hands, violently hacking water onto the ground, his entire body shaking from head to toe from shock and cold. When he could breathe clearly, he turned his eyes to Tadashi and instantly began to cry, crumbling into himself, hands over his face, wholeheartedly sobbing.

Tadashi moved close to him and scooped him up, kissing his forehead and hair, holding him close to his chest and telling him he would be alright. He began crying too, out of fear, out of relief, everything hitting him all at once as he sat there holding Hiro on the wet grass.

"Boys!" They barely glanced up when Aunt Cass came racing down the riverbank towards them and scooped them into her arms. She was getting wet from their soaked clothes but she didn't care, she just never wanted to let her boys go ever again.

* * *

><p>When they were finally able to make it home that night, after a long visit to the hospital for both of them and an even longer talk with police about what exactly had caused him to fall into the river, they all curled up on the couch and had a long talk.<p>

Hiro couldn't breathe. The car was filling with water faster than he could will himself to think of a solution and everything was happening faster than he could hope to prevent. He barely managed to get air into his lungs before the water was over his head. He looked around in panic and saw his friends take their quick breaths before the water overtook them as well.

The car sank to the bottom of the bay, settling into the sand, and Hiro felt panic and fear rise inside of him like the tide. He gripped his seatbelt and pulled desperately at it until he'd nearly worn himself out. His lungs were screaming and his head had seized up with fear. He couldn't think straight. He had to get out. He had to get out of the water.

He heard a noise beside him and looked out the open car door, expecting Tadashi to be there to save him—he'd always be there when he needed him. He'd save him from the river.

Instead he saw Baymax's armor settle into the sand piece by piece and felt the vinyl slip past him, undoing his seatbelt and those of his friends. He felt himself being pulled from the car and floating to the surface, and finally when they were above the water he felt the fear that gripped his heart lessening. He felt the panic settle into the pit of his stomach and his breathing was quick, but not panicked as he gulped air into the familiar sting in his lungs.

He felt the tears stinging the back of his eyes as he held on tightly to Baymax, shivering just above the surface of the water.

And then he realized:

Tadashi had saved him from the water. Just like he promised.

* * *

><p>It always feels like to many more words than it turns out to be! But this is for an anon on tumblr who requested: "I was hoping that maybe you could write a prompt based on a pic of Hiro and Tadashi on a bridge, in which Hiro walks dangerously on the railing of the bridge and falls into the river, and he can't swim and years later, Hiro is still traumatized." SO HERE IT IS! Along with a little angst and brotherly snuggles as well! WHOO!<p>

I rushed the ending because I literally had to leave for work two minutes after I finished writing it! Sorry! Maybe rewrite that bit later!


End file.
